5 biggest steals from 2025 NFL Draft

As the 2025 NFL Draft wraps up, it’s time to look at the winners and the losers, the reaches and the steals. Here, we’ll deal with the latter and take a look at the five biggest 2025 NFL Draft steals.

An NFL draft steal is, of course, subjective, but there is some math behind it too. There are millions of mock drafts produced on the internet these days, and these start to build a presumed consensus about what people think of these draft prospects.

For the most part, many of these mock drafts are relatively accurate, predicting here a prospect will go within a half-round or so. However, there are times when the mocks are off by quite a bit as players fall for one reason or another (often due to medical or character issues, which non-team personnel don’t have the same access to).

So, to be an NFL draft steal, we not only have to believe in a player’s talent, but they also have to have fallen outside of the range where most experts believed they’d be drafted.

With this as the criteria, here are the five biggest 2025 NFL Draft steals.

Top steals of the 2025 NFL Draft

Philadelphia Eagles — Round 1, Pick 3: LB Jihaad Campbell, Alabama

Stop me if this sounds familiar, but Eagles general manager Howie Roseman did it again in the 2025 NFL Draft. Roseman is known for loving to draft SEC defenders and taking ones who fall in the draft for one reason or another.

That strategy has paid off to the tune of winning the Super Bowl this past season.

Whether it was Jordan Davis falling because of his weight, Nakobe Dean because of an injury, Nolan Smith because of his size, or Jalen Carter due to character concerns, Roseman picked these uber-talented defenders past (and well-past in some cases) their predicted draft slot.

In 2025, the SEC defender with huge upside and issues was Alabama linebacker Jihaad Campbell. The former Crimson Tide LB is an incredible athlete and a tackling machine as an off-ball linebacker who also excels at blitzing and can also play as an undersized edge, ala Haason Reddick.

Most draft experts thought that he could go at the back end of the top 10 and his floor was somewhere around pick No. 18.

However, Campbell already had shoulder surgery this offseason and will likely need it again next offseason. That’s why he fell to 31, where, after trying to trade up into the 20s multiple times to get him, the Eagles finally picked moving up just one slot.
With his talent and all the blue-chip players around him, Campbell could become a standout performer right away for the defending Super Bowl champs.

Chicago Bears — Round 2, Pick 39: WR Luther Burden III

After several years of NFL drafts that were absolutely stocked with wide receiver talent, the 2025 edition presented teams with a pretty weak class at that position.

Every top WR prospect in 2025 had some sort of downside. Tetairoa McMillan isn’t fast, Matthew Golden isn’t big, and Emeka Egbuka isn’t dynamic. That’s not to say these players won’t become successful at the next level, but they all have at least one knock against them coming out of college.

Luther Burden III comes into the NFL with good size (6-feet, 206 pounds), excellent speed (4.41 40), and a ton of dynamism (25 total touchdowns in three college seasons). And despite being mocked anywhere from 12 to 22, he fell to 39.

The knock on the former Missouri star is off the field. While he’s never had a public incident, the rumors are that he is tough to deal with off the field, may not work hard at times, and is a wide receiver diva-type in the locker room.

Whether that is true or not, the league has been littered with diva WRs over the years and if Burden’s explosive style translates to the NFL—which it should— the Bears got a real steal.

After taking Michigan tight end Colston Loveland in Round 1 and Rome Odunze last year, Burden is a perfect complement to those guys, and now Caleb Williams could have the best stable of young pass catchers in the league.

Buffalo Bills — Round 3, Pick 72: EDGE Landon Jackson, Arkansas

Landon Jackson was projected to be a late first or early second round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft but falling to pick 72 in the third round makes him a steal for the Bills.

Jackson is 6-foot-6, 264 pounds, which is ideal size for a 4-3 DE. His new teammate Gregory Rousseau is about the same size. However, Jackson is built a lot differently than Rousseau.

The former LSU Tiger and Arkansas Razorback is all legs and arms. He’s not a solid-framed guy like most DEs are. The build makes for some awkward movement on the field but you cant argue with the production.

He put up 16.0 sacks in three seasons with Arkansas, including 6.5 in each of the last two years. Now, learning from Rousseau, Joey Bosa, and AJ Epensa while brining his unqiue pass rush to the league, Jackson could develop into a devastating rusher, making him an excellent pick at this spot.

Dallas Cowboys — Round 3, Pick 76: CB Shavon Revel, East Carolina

The Cowboys actually made several picks that could count as 2025 NFL Draft steals, taking Boston College pass rusher Donovan Ezeiruaku in the second round and East Carolina CB Shavon Revel in Round 3.

These players were both projected first-round picks at different points in the draft process, but since Revel fell further than, he’s the bigger steal.

Revel didn’t play against elite competition at ECU and he suffered a torn ACL last season. However, at 6-foot-2, 194 pounds with elite athleticism, the former Pirate is built like a true modern CB1.

With Trevon Diggs likely missing at least training camp if not the first part of the 2025 season, the Cowboys need more talent at corner, and if Revel gets past his injury and Diggs does, too, they could be quite a tandem.

Cleveland Browns — Round 5, Pick 144: QB Shedeur Sanders, Colorado

Say what you want about Shedeur Sanders, but he is an excellent value pick for the Browns in Round 5.

You can say that if his name was Shedeur Jones and his dad wasn’t “Prime Time,” he woudnt have ever been mentioned as a first-round pick. That said, you could also make that same case and say he would have been a second or third-round selection based purely on talent if he wasn’t who he is.

There are some holes in Sanders’ game, but he has fine NFL QB size, a decent arm, and is accurate and a good processor of the game. With this pick, the Browns got a developmental QB with legit starting upside, and in Round 5, that constitutes a steal.